Almost Cinematic

Shchedrin's 'Anna Karenina' and other premièresat the Stars of the White Nights Festival,by GIUSEPPE PENNISI

Now in its eighteenth edition, St Petersburg's Festival of the Stars of the White Nights started as an adventure nearly two decades ago. The glorious Mariinsky Ballet and Opera Company was about to collapse along with the downfall of Communism and of the Soviet Republics. It had been largely supported by taxation no longer available in the chaos of the transition to a market economy. The musical director and principal conductor, Valery Gergiev, already well known in the West, did all that a human being could to keep it together. The first step was a series of tours so that musicians could reach double objectives: in the short term, to get two meals every day; in the longer term, to find sponsors and partners not only for their activities abroad but also to prosper in the marvelous theatre in their home country...